THE 



Capture of Mount Washington 



zA^ — 



>i i ' ' il'^ ' 



/ 



THE 



CAPTURE OF MOUNT WASHINGTON, 



NOVEMBER i6th, 1776, 



THE RESULT OF TREASON, 



BY 




EDWARD F. DE LANCEY. 



New York. 



1877.. 



CX 



Read before the New York Historical Society, at its Regular 
Meeting on December 5 th, 1876, in commemoration of the one 
hundredth anniversary of the capture of Mount Washington on 
November i6th, 1776, 



Reprinted from the '"'' Magazine of American History'" for Feb- 
ruary, 1877, with corrections of press errors, an additional Map, and 
an Appendix. 



EDITION 150 COPIES. 



^ 



EXPLANATION OF MAP. 

Photo-lithographic fac-simile of a copy taken from the original in Cassel for Professor Joy, 
now in the possession of J. Carson Brevoort, Esq. 

Translation of the Legend on the Map. — The attack which His 
Excellency the Hon. General Lieutenant von Knyphausen, with eight Battal- 
ions of Hessians and one Battalion of Waldeckers, on the i6 November 1776, 
made on Fort Washington, taking it and a quantity of Ammunition and Pro- 
visions, and 2,600 American Prisoners. 

A Camp before the Attack. B March of the said Regiments for King's 
Bridge. C Formation of the Columns of which one on the right and 
another on the left. D The Riflemen. E Enemy's Line of Batteries. 
F G II Fort Washington, Fort Lidependence, Speak-Devil Fort garrisoned 
by the Enemy. / Our Batteries. K Hessian Field Artillery. L Quarters 
of His Excellency. M Do. of General Major Schmidt. N Do. of General 
Cleveland. O Do. of Col. Rail. F Landing of the English Brigade on 
the feint. Q Frigate that made a strong cannonade at the beginning of the 
attack. 



MOUNT WASHINGTON AND ITS CAPTURE ON THE i6th 

OF NOVEMBER, 1776. 

FOUR of tht military events of the American Revolution occurred 
upon the island of New York : — ist The landing at Kips Bay, and 
the occupation of the city, by the British army, on the 15th of 
September, 1776; 2d The action of Harlem Plains on the succeeding- 
day ; 3d The capture of Mount Washington two months afterwards, 
and 4th The evacuation of the island and the victorious entry of Wash- 
ington, on the 25th of November, 1783. 

A century ago, the i6th day of November 1776, took place the storm- 
ing and capture of Mount Washington, with its fort, garrison, armament 
and stores, by the army of Sir William Howe, who had been just made 
a Knight of the Bath for his victory, a few weeks before, at Brooklyn 
Heights. It was the first and the last great battle ever fought on the 
island of Manhattan since its settlement by Europeans. It was a terrible 
disaster to the American arms, and a heavy blow to the cause of the 
colonies. It gave to the British army and to England undisputed 
possession of the city and harbor of New York, the leading city and 
chief seaport of America ; a possession which it was never after in the 
power of the colonies even to threaten successfully, much less regain. 

It struck instantly from the then rapidly dissolving army of Wash- 
ington nearly three thousand effective men. By the same blow, practi- 
cally, Fort Lee, on the opposite side of the Hudson, with its guns and 
most of its stores, was taken, and New Jersey thrown open to the strong, 
well appointed, victorious troops of Howe, with nought to oppose them 
but the broken, dispirited, deserting, half clad regiments of Washington, 
dwindled down to less than three thousand men.' " In ten days," wrote 
Washington to his brother John Augustine, three days after the capture, 
" there will not be above two thousand men, if that number, of the fixed 

'Wasliinglou to Lee, 21 Nov. Force sthseiies, vol. iii pp. 78-9. Letter of Matthew Tilghman. 
Ibid. p. 1053. 



6 MOUNT WASHINGTON AND ITS CAPTURE NOV. l6 1 776 

established regiments on this side of Hudson's river to oppose Howe's 
whole army, and very little more on the other to secure the Eastern 
colonies and the important passes leading through the Highlands to 
Albany and the country about the lakes.'" No wonder he exclaims 
in the same letter, in the full confidence of fraternal love, " I am wearied 
almost to death with the retrogade motion of things, and I solemnly 
protest, that a pecuniary reward of twenty thousand pounds a year 
would not induce me to undergo what I do ; and after all to lose my 
character, as it is impossible under such a variety of distressing circum- 
stances, to conduct matters agreeably to public expectation, or even to 
the expectation of those who employ me, as they will not make proper 
allowances for the difficulties their own errors have occasioned." 

Whence and why this disaster? Who was responsible? Was it the 
commandant of the post, the General in charge of Fort Lee with whom 
that officer acted, or was it the Commander-in-Chief himself ? 

Perhaps no questions growing out of any single event of the Revo- 
lution were discussed with more vigor at the time, or have given rise to 
more controversy since, than these. Each of the three officers, Wash- 
ington, Greene, and Magaw have had their enemies and opposers, friends 
and defenders. 

Two facts, utterly foreign to the capture as acts of war, or rather of 
military science and forecast, had much to do with this controversy ; — 
the bitter antagonism to Washington in the Continental Congress, and 
the intense antipathy between the officers and men from New England 
and those from all the other colonies. These facts are only mentioned, 
because they should always be borne in mind in considering the 
military affairs of the Revolution, and especially those of its first two 
years. 

The throwing of his army into Westchester county at Throg's Neck, 
by Sir William Howe on the 12th of October, 1776, forced Washington 
to evacuate New York Island, with the fortified camp at Kingsbridge, 
and to retreat to the north along the line of the river Bronx, to avoid 
being outflanked and surrounded. At the time Washington was at the 
Roger Morris House — his well-known head-quarters — and the bulk of his 
army lay in its neighborhood, while a strong force held Kingsbridge and 
the adjoining hills in Westchester county. 

The northern part of the island of Manhattan is a narrow, high, rocky, 
wooded region of singular natural beauty ; unique as a feature in modern 
cities, and precisely such a spot as in an ancient Greek city would have 

'Force 5th scries, vol. iii, p. 766. 



MOUNT WASHINGTON AND ITS CAPTURE NOV. l6 1 776 7 

been chosen for its Acropolis. Separated from the rest of the island by the 
plains of Harlem on the south, and extending thence to Kingsbridge on 
the north, a distance of about four miles, its average width is only about 
three-fourths of a mile. Bordered on the east by the narrow winding, 
umbrageous Harlem, and on the west by the magnificent Hudson, the 
two united by the historic inlet of Spuyten Duyvel, it rises from these 
rivers in sudden, rocky, forest clad precipices, nearly a hundred feet in 
height, which for well nigh three-fourths of its circumference are almost 
inaccessible. These natural buttresses support an irregular plain, the 
surface of which rises toward the centre to an eminence on the side 
of the Hudson two hundred feet above its waters, and to another on the 
side of the Harlem of almost equal height, between which lies the most 
level part of the entire region. This towards its northern end sinks 
into a narrow valley or gorge, through which runs the road to Kings- 
bridge. Besides the Kingsbridge, which connected the island with the 
mainland of Westchester, there was another bridge, a short distance 
south east of it, called Dyckman's bridge. Opposite these bridges the 
rocky bluffs recede to the west for nearly a mile, leaving between them 
and the Harlem river a small plain, on which rise two or three low hills. 
At the southern end of this plain was a little branch of the Harlem called 
Sherman's creek, still in existence, directly above and south of which 
rises the high eminence on the Harlem above-mentioned, then termed 
" Laurel Hm," and since, and now, " Fort George." 

The highest eminence on the Hudson, which was southwest from 
Laurel HiU, was selected by Colonel Rufus Putnam, in the summer of 
1776, as the site of a large earthwork fortification for the defence of and 
to aid the obstructions intended to close the Hudson against the passage 
of ships, which, after the Commander-in-Chief, was called " Fort Wash- 
ington." 

The term "Mount Washington" was given in 1776 to the entire 
elevated region above described. It is so-called in the letters and docu- 
ments of that period, though sometimes styled " Harlem Heights ; " and 
in the same sense it is here used, although in our day the appellation 
has become restricted to the small part of the region immediately 
adjacent to the old fortification. That fortification— and that only— is 
here called " Fort Washington." 

Directly beneath the eminence on which Fort Washington stood, a 
low cape, (^r rather promontory, called Jeffrey's Hook, throws itself out 
into the waters of the Hudson, making the river narrower there than from 
any other point on the Manhattan sliore. Between this " Hook " and the 



8 MOUNT WASHINGTON AND ITS CAPTURE NOV. l6 1 776 

Jersey shore extended a line of simken vessels and cJicvaiix-dc-frise, 
intended to obstruct the passage of the river. On the summit of the 
Pahsades, opposite Fort Washington, was erected about the same time 
another fortification to defend the Jersey end of the obstructions, called 
" Fort Constitution " and subsequently " Fort Lee," in honor of General 
Charles Lee. This latter was therefore dependent on the former, and 
was of no value without it. Both forts together commanded the river 
and the communication between its two sides, or, in a larger sense, be- 
tween New England and the colonies west and south of the Hudson. 

Jutting out into and rising above the Harlem plains, at the extreme 
south eastern extremity of Mount Washington, was a lofty and almost 
perpendicular promontory, now blasted away, called "The Point of 
Rocks." It was surmounted by a strong battery, and commanded " the 
King's Highway," or " the Road to Kingsbridge," from the city of New 
York, and was the American post nearest to the British lines. 

The American lines ran from the Point of Rocks westwardly to the 
Hudson river, along the southern face of Mount Washington, lower and 
less precipitous there than any where else, and northeastwardly along 
its high southeastern face to the Harlem river. 

A slight depression in the latter face, as it approached the Harlem, 
afforded a passage for the road to Kingsbridge as it ascended from the 
Harlem plains, forming the well-known " Break Neck Hill," a short dis- 
tance to the east of which road stood the house of Colonel Roger Morris, 
occupied by Washington as his headquarters. A few weeks before, 
Roger Morris and his fair wife had retired to the Highlands, little 
dreaming that his old friend and companion of " the last war," and his 
wife's old admirer, was to become the next master of their beautiful 

home. 

East and west of the Point of Rocks, in exposed places, the Americans 
had thrown up light breast works and facing the Hudson some small 
batteries, the largest being upon Jeffrey's Hook. But their main works 
were at Mount Washington and south of the Fort — three distinct lines 
of fortifications running across the island from river to river. 

The middle line was located about a third of a mile south of the 
Morris House; a thoroughly completed strong work, with redoubts, 
bastions, and curtains, — a well made line of intrenchments. The ex- 
treme southern line was placed about a third of a mile further to the 
south, but it was not so well built, nor in as favorable a location ; while 
the northernmost one, very near the Morris House, and about the same 
distance to the north of the middle line, was vastly inferior, and in some 
parts never wholly completed. 



MOUNT WASHINGTON AND ITS CAPTURE NOV. l6 1 776 9 

Upon its north side Mount Washington had no intrenched lines 
whatever. On the summit of Laurel Hill was a small battery and re- 
doubt, and at the northern brow of the long hill, on which Fort Wash- 
ino-ton stood-above what is now styled Inwood-was another redoubt 
and battery of three guns, to aid in protecting the river obstructions by 
an enfiladino- fire. The round wooded hill on the south side of the en- 
trance to Spuyten Duy vel was crowned by another small work of a simi- 
lar character mounting two guns.' From this first mentioned battery and 
hill, down and across the gorge occupied by the Kingsbridge road to 
Laurel Hill ran two or three lines of abatis, or felled trees, hastily made 
by the Americans after they retired on the 2d of November from Kings- 

bridge. , ^ -r ^- c c 

Fort Washington itself was a large earth work fortification of five 
bastions, without supporting breastworks, except a single one on its 
north side. It was erected in July, 1776, by the Pennsylvania battalions 
or regiments under Brig. Gen. Thomas Mifflin; the fifth commanded 
by Colonel Robert Magaw, and the third by Colonel John Shee : 
The last named officer, in September, went home on furlough, and never 
a^ain rejoined his regiment, which thereafter was commanded by Lam- 
bert Cadwallader, its Lieutenant Colonel.'^ These regiments arrived m 
New York at the end of June, 1776, full in numbers but deficient in 
arms, the latter having only 300 guns, and the former but 125^-a want 
subsequently remedied. The fort had been laid out by Colonel Rufus 
Putnam, Engineer-in-Chiel, built under his directions at Washington s 
request, and was intended to cover the communication with New 
Jersey in connection with Fort Lee, on the suijimit of the Palisades on 
the opposite or Jersey side of the Hudson, which was erected at the 
same time by General Hugh Mercer and the troops under his command. 
It had no casemates, barracks nor well, and when invested, con- 
tained but small supplies of provisions, or fuel, or stores of any kind 
requisite to stand a siege of any length. With the exception of a 
wooden magazine and some offices, it had no interior construction and 
was, in fact, simply a large, open earth work.^ How many guns it 
mounted is not now known. The British return of ordnance of all sizes 

iHowe's Dispatch. Force 5th series, vol. iii, p. 924- . 

^Graydon's Memoir, LittelFs ed., p. 181. Cadwallader was commissioned Colonel of this 
regiment by the Continental Congress on the 25th of October, 1776. See Commission Pena 

Archives, vol. v., p. 53. , . _ 

^Mifflin's letter to Washington 5th July 1776. Force 5th series, vol. i, p. 27. 

^Graydon, 1S6. 



IH 



lO MOUNT WASHINGTON AND ITS CAPTURE NOV. l6 1776 

captured at Mount Washington was forty-seven/ of which probably much 
less than one-half were mounted in the fort. 

The summer of 1776 was of great heat, and these Pennsylvania 
troops were drilled hard, as well as worked hard. About a fourth were 
always on the sick list. Excepting two days service on Long Island, im- 
mediately following the battle of the 27th of August, and some short 
marches into Westchester, just after their return from Brooklyn, they 
saw no service in the field except upon Mount Washington." 

The American army lay encamped on Mount Washington from the 
beginning of September 'till the 13th of October, 1776, a period of about 
five weeks. 

At the latter end of September, Mr. James Allen,' of Philadelphia, 
second son of Chief Justice Allen, and Dr Smith, the Provost of the 
College in that city, paid a visit of curiosity, merely, to the seat of war. 
In the manuscript diary of the former there is an account of his visit to 
Mount Washington at this time. From Amboy, where he saw his old 
friends Generals Dickenson and Mercer, he went to Bergen, and lodged 
with another friend. General Roberdeau, who commanded that post. 
" Thence," says the diary, " to Fort Constitution, now Fort Lee, com- 
manded by my old acquaintance, General Ewing, with whom I dined, 
and same day crossed the river to Head-quarters. General Washington 
received me with the utmost politeness. I lodged with him ; and found 
there Messrs. Jos. Reed, Tilghman, Grayson, Moyland, L. Cadwallader, 
and many others of my acquaintance, and was very happy with them. 
Nothing happened while I was there except an attempt of our army to 
bring off grain from Harlem, in which they did not succeed, and which 
had well nigh brought on an engagement. Next day I re-crossed the 
river to Fort Lee, and came through Hackensack in company with 
Captain Charles Craig, and thence through Morristown to Union, where 
I found my wife and child, and Mrs. Lawrence,'" the latter lady being 
his wife's mother. 

Ten days before this visit, on the i8th of August, says General Heath, 
not a single cannon was mounted beyond Mount Washington." On the 

'Force 5th series, vol. iii, p. 1058. 

^Tliey were recruited in tlie early part of 1776, and so well drilled in Philadelphia, prior to 
being sent to New York at the end of June, as to receive mention from Washington himself. 

^James Allen, the second son of Chief Justice William Allen, of Pennsylvania, was a prominent 
lawyer of Philadelphia and a member of Assembly for Northampton county. He was a brother-in- 
law to Governor John Penn and to James de Lancey, of New York, the head of that family, eldest 
son of James de I.ancey who died Governor of New York in 1760. 

■•MS. Diary of James Allen. 

*Force 5th series, vol. i, p. 1030. 



MOUNT WASHINGTON AND ITS CAPTURE NOV. l6 1776 11 

,0th William Duer was ordered by the New York Convention to consult 
with Washington on the subject of aidhrg him to obstruct the r.ver op- 

'"t^i:e"l«ltlpt:mber Washington ordered Mercer to lay out 
and buUd addkional works at Fort Lee.' The very same day Colone 
Ruus Putnam stated in his report to the Commander-urCh.efo that 
d "te that with both sides ol the river fortified as he recommended and 
the forts and batteries well filled with guns and ammumt.on and the 
rter obstructed by sunken vessels, if the enemy " attempted to force 
this oost, 1 think they must be beaten. ' 

0,"tlis same thi/d of September also, it strangely happened General 
Nathaniel Greene wrote Washington that remarkable pr.vate letter urgmg 
T; t e trongest terms the burning of New York and ,ts suburbs, and 
the evacurtion of the island, closing it with this request-" should your 
excel en y agree with me in the first two points, that a speedy and gen- 
eral e.^at Is necessary, and also, that the city and suburbs should be 
burned! I would advise to call a general council on that question, and 
tike everv o-eneral officer's opinion upon it. ' . , , 

WasWn^ton, singularly enough, had already submitted the cp.estion 
of "yW New\ork to Congress the very day before r and Han- 
cock also^,l? this same 3d day of September, replied to him, that Con- 
' es; on co^idering his letter of the .d, " came to a resolution in a com- 
mute; of fte whole^ouse that no damage should be done to the city of 

^'tiI Commander-in-Chief agreeing to Greene's suggestions, did call 
a counciVof general officers on the 7th, and they deeded to defend an 
Lto destroy and evacuate the city, by a majority vote. The mmo. ity 
verlfor a toLl and immediate removal from the city, " nor were some 
of the majority." says Washington to Hancock, " a httle influenced m 

ijouraals N. Y. Trov. Cong., vol. i, p. 579- 

'^Force sA series, vol. ii, p 140. September 13 .^ome of the chevaux de frise 

3Ibkl. 139. The obstruction, proved fu Uk On ^^P'^"^^'^' ^ 

.avin, bee. Jloatin, with ^^^^^^^^^^^2.::^:^ survey of tL 

Clinton on the subject, and on the ^7th oicleiea p ^.^^ered six vessels purchased by 

Cong., pp. 624, 628, 639, 663. 

''Force 5th series, vol. ii, pp. 1S2-3. 
sForce 5th series, vol. ii, pp. 1S2-3. 
«lbid. p. 135. 



12 MOUNT WASHINGTON AND ITS CAPTURE NOV. l6 1776 

their opinions, to whom the determination of Congress was known, 
against an evacuation totally, as they were led to suspect Congress 
wished it to be maintained at every hazard.'" 

This decision did not suit Greene, nor apparently Washington, and 
on the nth of September the former, with six Brigadiers, presented a 
written petition signed by them all, to the latter, requesting him to call 
anotJicr coimcil of ivar to rc-considcr the question. Washington assented, and 
called it for the next day, the 12th, at McDougall's quarters ; when ten 
generals, Beall, Scott, Fellows, Wadsworth, Nixon, McDougall, Parsons, 
Mifflin, Greene, and Putnam, voted to re-consider and evacuate ; and 
three, Spencer, George Clinton, and Heath, to adhere and defend. The 
record of this council thus closes : " It was considered what number of 
men are necessary to be left for the defence of Mount Washington and its 
dependencies — agreed, that it be eight thousand.'"^ 

Tliis is the first official mention that Mount Washington was to be 
defended, and it is noteworthy that so large a number of men was then 
deemed necessary for that object. From this summary of the official 
action of Congress, Washington and the Council of War, we learn why 
Mount Washington was occupied and held. 

Pursuant to the decision of the Council of War just mentioned, the 
evacuation of the island began on the 13th, continued on the 14th, 
and was interrupted on the 15th of September, 1776, by the landing 
at Kip's Bay and the taking of the cit}^ by the British. After 
the action of Harlem Plains the succeeding day, the two armies lay 
encamped opposite each other, separated by those plains. The British 
lines extended from Horen's Hook, on the East river at 90th street, along 
the heights at McGowan's Pass (the north end of the Central Park) to 
the end of the high ground on the south side of the western end of the 
Harlem plains at 125th street, while the American lines occupied the whole 
of the southern and eastern side of Mount Washington, facing the 
northern side of those plains, from the Harlem to the Hudson. 

Such were the positions of the two armies when Howe suddenly, on 
the 1 2th of October, in a dense fog, threw all his army upon Throg's Neck, 
nine miles up Long Island Sound, with the exception of a force under 
Lord Percy sufficient to hold the British lines just mentioned, and the city 
of New York. 

Washington, as before stated, was at the Morris House. Late in the 
day an express from General Heath advised him of the landing, the news 

'Force 5II1 scries, vol. ii, p. 237. 
*Ibid. 325, 32S, and 330. 



MOUNT WASHINGTON AND ITS CAPTURE NOV. 1 6 1 776 i;^ 

of which had reached the post of that officer at Kingsbridge. He in- 
stantly ordered a detachment, made up of his best troops, to Westchester 
to oppose them.' Among these was the regiment of Prescott of Pep- 
perell, the hero of Bunker Hill, to 'whose lot it fell singularly enough, for 
the second time, to aid mainly in forcing Howe from a peninsula, by de- 
fending with success the road and Mill Dam leading from Throg's Neck 
to Westchester village. 

So unexpected was this movement of Howe, that the very day before 
it took place — the nth — General Greene, from Fort Lee, wrote Gover- 
ner Cooke, of Rhode Island, " our army are so strongly fortified and so 
much out of the command of the shipping, we have little more to fear 
this campaign."" General Greene however, the same day, as soon as he 
heard of it, at 5 o'clock P. M. of the 12th, wrote Washington of the fact, 
and offered if he desired them three, brigades and his own services."^ 

The 13th Washington spent chiefly in a personal reconnoissance of 
southern Westchester. The next day, the 14th, he formed his army into 
four divisions, under Major Generals Lee, Heath, Sullivan, and Lincoln, 
which the following day, the 15th, moved into Westchester county. The 
same day, the 14th, he formed two other divisions to remain on the island 
under Major Generals Spencer and Putnam ; the former to take charge 
of all Mount Washington south of the northernmost of the fortified lines 
from river to river, near head-quarters, and the latter the rest of it on the 
north of that line. General Putnam, says the order, " will also attend 
particularly to the works about Mount Washington and to the obstruc- 
tions in the river, which should be increased as fast as possible."^ 

General Lee had arrived from the south the day of his appointment, 
and after making a brief stop at the fort which bears his name, crossed 
the river to Mount Washington, stopping long enough, however, to write 
this short note to General Gates, with his views of things as he found 
them : " I write this scroll in a hurry. Colonel Ward will describe the 
position of our army, which in my own breast I do not approve — inter nos 
the Congress seem to stumble at every step. I do not mean one or two 
of the cattle, but the whole stable. I have been very free in delivering 
my opinion to 'em. In my opinion. General Washington is much to 
blame for not menancing 'em with resignation unless they refrain from 
unhinging the army by their absurd interference.'" 

'Force 5th series, vol. ii, pp. 1014 and 1025. 
"^Force 5th series, vol. ii, p. ggy. 
"Ibid. p. 1015. 
^General orders Oct. 14. 
^Lee papers, vol. ii, p. 261. 



14 MOUNT WASHINGTON AND ITS CAPTURE NOV. l6 1776 

Lee was outspoken in condemnation of the policy of leaving and 
holding a garrison in Fort Washington, but he and those who thought 
with him were overruled in the council of war, held on the i6th at his 
own head-quarters in Westchester. Washington and all his Major Gen- 
erals and Brigadiers were present to the number of sixteen, except 
Greene. The command of the latter being in New Jersey was the prob- 
able cause of his absence. At all events he was not there. 

This council agreed that ''■Fort Washmgtoit be retained as long as possi- 
ble." The record gives no votes but simply the result. It is, therefore, 
not officially known who was on one side and who on the other.' And 
here a most important point requires attention, and that is the limited 
extent, at this time, of Washington's powers as Commander-in-Chief, 
He did not have, nor exercise, the independent " one man power," 
which by all military rules belongs to that command. 

He could not overrule the council of war if he saw fit, and act on his 
own independent judgment, as Commanders-in-Chief usually do. Re- 
ceiving his appointment from Congress the year previous, in virtue, as 
he himself has told us, of " a political necessity," that body was un- 
willing to vest in him the power referred to, and he was thus compelled 
to carry out the decisions of his council of war, no matter whether he 
individually did, or did not, approve them. Not until Congress at the 
very end of December, 1776, when Cornwallis was overrunning New 
Jersey, on the eve of their flight to Baltimore, and in fear of their own 
existence, vested in him the powers of a dictator, did he possess the 
full perogatives of a Commander-in-Chief. From the hour when he 
drew his sword under the great elm at Cambridge as leader of the armies 
of America, till that action of Congress he was, in all important steps, 
subject to the will and the decision of a majority of his own general 
officers. This fact must especially be borne in mind in the matter of 
Mount Washington. 

By the 20th of October all the troops left on the island of New York 
under Spencer and Putnam had been withdrawn, except the regiments 
intended to garrison Mount Washington." These were Magaw's fifth 
and Cadwallader's third Pennsylvania battalions before mentioned. 

Putnam, before leaving, had requested of Greene a re-inforcement 
from Fort Lee. The latter sent him, as he tells Washington in a letter 
of the 24th, between 200 and 300 of Durkie's regiment, and also sufficient 

'Force 5th scries, vol. ii, p. II17. 

'Harrison to Congress. Force 5th series, vol. ii, p. 1137. 



MOUNT WASHINGTON AND rrS CAPTURE NOV. l6 1776 15 

provisions for the garrison.' Harrison, however, writing for Washington 
the same day, from White Plains, tells Hancock that there " are about 
1400 men at Mount Washington and 600 at Kingsbridge."-^ But Colonel 
Lasher, the officer in command at. the latter post, wrote General Heath 
on the 26th that he only had 400 men and 6 artillery men.' On the 27th 
Lasher had orders from Heath to quit the post, burn the barracks, and 
join the army at White Plains, and either do this himself, or communi- 
cate with Magaw, as he pleased. He obeyed and executed the orders 

himself.' 

The same day, which was Sunday, an attack was made by Lord 
Percy on Mount Washington by land, at the same time that two men-of- 
war attempted to pass it and go up the river. The latter were severely 
cut up by Magaw's artillery, and one of them, badly crippled, had to re- 
tire.' The British troops moved down from their lines at McGowan's 
Pass to Harlem Plains and began a fire with field pieces, which the 
Americans returned from their fortified lines and batteries. It was a 
mere artillery duel, had no effect, and was apparently intended as a feint." 
The cannonade was heard at White Plains.^ This affair was probably 
one great cause of Greene's confidence in Fort Washington, and of his 
desire a fortnight later to hold it. He was present in the fort, and with 
Magaw, during the firing on the ships. The whole contest was over by three 
o'clock in the afternoon, when he returned to Fort Lee and wrote an ac- 
count of it to General Mifflin,* and the next day sent another to the 
President of Congress. " From the Sunday affair," he wrote Washing- 
ton on the 29th, " I am more fully convinced that we can prevent any 
ships from stopping the communication.'" 

Two days afterwards, Greene asked Washington's opinion as to hold- 
ing, not the fort only, but all Mount Washington, in these words : " I 
should be glad to know your excellency's mind about holding all the 
ground from the Kingsbridge to the lower lines. If we attempt to hold 
the ground, the garrison must still be re-inforced, but if the garrison 
is to draw into Mount (Fort) Washington, and only keep that, the num- 

^Force 5th series vol. ii, pp. 1202, 1203, 1221. 

^Ibid. 1239!- 

"Ibid. 1263. 

*Ibid. vol. ii, p. 1264. 

^Ibid. vol. ii, pp. 1263, 1265. 

^Ibid. 1266. 

'MS. Letter of General Sillimaii to his wife. 

sporce 5th series, 1263, I26g. 

«Ibid. 1281. 



l6 MOUNT WASHINGTON AND ITS CAPTURE NOV. l6 1 776 

ber of the troops on the island is too large. * * * I shall re-inforce 
Colonel Magaw with Colonel Rawling's regiment, until I hear from 
your excellency respecting the matter. The motions of the grand army 
will best determine the propriety of endeavoring to hold all the ground 
from Kingsbridge to the lower lines. I shall be as much on the island 
of York as possible, so as not to neglect the duties of my own depart- 
ment.'" What Washington's answer was we shall hereafter see. He 
was then at White Plains, expecting an immediate attack by Howe's whole 
army. 

That high and beautiful region of south eastern Westchester, from 
Pell's Hill on the west to Heathcote Hill on the east, never glowed 
with more brilliant autumnal hues than on the 28th of October 1776. 
The white tents of the Hessians gleamed brightly in the morning sun, 
amid the glades and slopes of those fair hills which, rising from-the shores 
of Long Island Sound, form the coast line of the old Manors of Pelham 
and of Scarsdale. Martial music woke the echoes of the woods, and its 
sounds were borne on the soft autumn breeze over the blue waters of 
the Sound, far toward the distant hills of Long Island. The stirring 
scenes of camp life, companies drilling, groups of officers, prancing 
horses, busy adjutants passing to and fro, and a few brilliant young aids 
gathered under the over-hanging porch of a quaint old stone house with 
low walls and a high roof, the flag above which marked it as head- 
quarters, formed a picture that had never before been seen by the de- 
scendants of the Huguenot exiles who then dwelt on those lovely shores. 
They beheld with singular interest the marked features, dark, striking 
uniforms and strange arms of the Germans. Some of the older, 
perhaps, as they heard the guttural tones of the strangers, so different 
from their own musical tongue, recalled the days, a century before, when 
their own grandfathers, under the golden lilies of Louis Quartorze, had 
aided in the conquest of Alsace and Lothringen from the very people 
whose grandchildren stood before them. 

Arriving in New York harbor a week before, this second Hessian 
contingent had been transferred to boats and sloops, and landed directly 
at New Rochelle, where they had since been recovering from the effects 
of their long sea voyage. They were six regiments from Hesse Cassel, 
and one from Waldeck, all soldiers trained in the tactics of the great 
Frederick. 

The obloquy which American historians have naturally, perhaps, 
cast upon " the Hessians," as these Germans auxiliaries were, and still 

'Force 5th Series, 1294. 



MOUNT WASHINGTON AND ITS CAPTURE NOV. 1 6 1 776 1/ 

are, generically styled, has deceived us much as to their real character. 
The men were the same people precisely as the 150,000 Germans whom 
we now find in this city of New York — such orderly, thriving citizens, 
and who have made New York the third or fourth German city, for 
population, in the world. They were drawn, as is our German popula- 
tion now, to use an Americanism, from the " masses " of the fatherland. 

Their officers, however, were of an entirely different class, and one 
of which we have few, or none, here now. They were a/l noblc}}icn. 
None but nobles could hold commissions under any German sovereign 
then, any more than they can now. The military services of Germany 
and Austria are the most aristocratic in Europe in 1876, as they were in 
1776. As far as birth was concerned, the Hessian officers as a whole in 
Howe's army were superior to the English officers as a whole. A rich 
middle class Englishman could buy a commission for a son, and it was 
often done, by favor of the Horse Guards, for the express purpose of 
making the youth " a gentleman." But in the German services such a 
proceeding was not tolerated. The youth must possess the aristocratic 
prefix of " von," or " de," or he could not aspire to a commission under 
the sign manual of his sovereign, and those sovereigns exceeded twenty 
in number. The Hessian officers in America were polite, courteous, 
well-bred gentlemen, educated soldiers, and in the social circles of the 
time great favorites. As military men they were the best in Europe at 
that period. And of this we can have no stronger proof than the fact 
that to one of these very " Hessian," or " German" soldiers did the 
continental army owe all the tactics and discipline it ever possessed — 
Baron de Steuben. 

The victorious guns of Howe had hardly ceased on Chatterton Hill, 
ere he dispatched an order to Lieutenant-General Baron von Knyphau- 
sen, the commander of the Hessians, to move from New Rochelle toward 
Kingsbridge. Leaving the Waldeck regiment as a guard, von Knyp- 
hausen marched with the rest of his command the next day, took post at 
Mile square, and on the 2d of November encamped upon New York 
island at Kingsbridge — the Americans retiring to Fort Washington at 
his approach.' 

Why Howe did not attack Washington at White Plains after the 
brigades from Percy joined him, neither he, nor any one else, has ever 
satisfactorily explained. After his return to England, he told the com- 
mittee of Parliament which investigated his conduct that he Jiad in- 
tended an attack on Washington's right, which was opposite to the 

'Howe's Dispatch, 30th Nov. Force 5th series, vol. iii, p. 923. 



l8 MOUNT WASHINGTON AND ITS CAPTURE NOV. l6 1 776 

Hessians under de Heister, but that he had '* political reasons, and no 
other, for declining to explain why that assault was not made."* 

He retired from White Plains very suddenly in the night of the 5th 
of November, 1776, and his army had been moving some time on the 
road toward Dobb's Ferry before the fact was discovered by the Ameri- 
cans. " The design of this manoeuvre is a matter of much conjecture 
and speculation, and cannot be accounted for with any degree of cer- 
tainty," wrote Washington to Hancock on the 6th, and he called the same 
day a council of war, which unanimously agreed immediately to throw a 
body of troops into Jersey, and station 3,000 men at Peekskill to guard 
the Highlands. This was a perfectly natural conclusion. " Howe has but 
two moves more, in which we shall checkmate him," wrote Charles Lee, 
but without sa3ang what they were.^ 

One was evidently to New Jersey, and the other to Mount Washing- 
ton. Why did Howe choose the latter? That he intended originally 
to throw his army into Jersey from Dobb's Ferry and march for Phila- 
delphia, leaving Washington to follow him as best he might — first, how- 
ever, detaching and leaving behind a sufihcient force to hold Westchester, 
and to keep in check, or invest, Mount Washington — is most probable. 
This would explain his order to von Knyphausen on the 28th, and the 
subsequent order of the 3d to Grant, to march the next day, the 4th, with 
the sixth brigade to de Lancey's Mill on the Bronx at West Farms, send 
the fourth brigade to Mile square in the same town, and the Waldeck 
regiment from New Rochelle to a bridge, three miles above de Lancey's 
Mills, on the same stream." 

Washington and his council of war evidently thought he would do so, 
hence their unanimous vote to throw an army into Jersey and to secure 
Peekskill. The record of that council shows that neither " Mount Wash- 
ington" nor " Fort Washington" were even mentioned.* A striking 
fact, when we know from a letter of the Commander-in-Chief himself, 
written the day the council met, that all " communication with Mount 
Washington has now been cut off for two weeks."' Reed, on the same 6th 
of November, says : '' Opinions here are various ; some think they are fall- 
ing down on Mount Washington ; others that they mean to take shipping 
up North river and fall upon our rear ; others, and a great majority, think 
that finding our army too strongly posted they have changed their whole 

'Howe's Narrative, p. 7. 

^Letter of Wm. Whipple to John Langdoii. F'orce 5th series, vol. iii, p. 555. 

''Howe's Dispatch. 

^Force 5th series, vol. iii, p. 543. 

^To Pennsylvania Commissioners, Nov. 6, 1776. Force 5th series, vol. iii, p. 546. 



MOUNT WASHINGTON AND ITS CAPTURE NOV. l6 1 776 19 

plan, and are bending southward, intending to penetrate the Jerseys, 
and so move on to Philadelphia." 

Howe suddenly and certainly did "change his whole plan." He 
himself said his reason for not attacking Washington at White Plains 
was a political one, but refused to divulge it. His successes in the cam- 
paign so far had not been decided ones. He had not been able to crush 
the rebellion in a single great battle as he hoped, and he found he must 
ask the Ministry in England for more men and materials. Though they 
were not his political friends, still, they had given him his command, and 
must be placed in a position to do so with ease and honor. And an 
occurrence utterly unexpected had just transpired by which he could 
not only do this, but at the same time win great applause for himself, and 
strike a blow deadly, if not fatal, to the rebellion, and that too with no risk 
of failure and little of loss. 

He had good cause '' to change his whole plan," as Reed expressed it. 
And that cause was tlic treason of a covimissioncd officer of the American army. 
Four years before Arnold's attempt to betray West Point, a similar but 
more successful traitor betrayed Mount Washington. On the 2d of 
November, 1776, tlie Adjutant of Magazv, the commandant of the fortress, 
passed, undiscovered, into the British camp of Lord Percy, carrying the 
plans of Fort Washington, and full ii for mat ion as to its zvorks and garrison, 
and placed them in the hands of that officer. 

It was Percy's duty, of course, instantly to send the plans and the 
Adjutant to Sir William Howe, then at White Plains. As he could only 
do this by way of the East river, or the North river, it probably was the 
evening of the 3d of November before Howe received them, and they 
may possibly not have reached him till the 4th. The British commander 
now saw not only how he could certainly capture Mount Washington, 
but how he could do it without much loss, send the ministry in England 
a glowing account of forts, guns, and men taken, deprive Washington of 
a large force of his best troops, seize the communication between New 
York and Westchester, and destroy that between the eastern and southern 
colonies across the Hudson, on which both had so long relied ; he 
acted accordingly. 

Alexander Graydon, a captain in Cadwallader's regiment, who was 
taken at Mount Washington, says, in his striking " Memoirs of 
his own Times," given to the world in 181 1, " Howe must have had a 
perfect knowledge of the ground we occupied. This he might have 
acquired from hundreds in New York, but he might have been more 
thoroughly informed of everything desirable to be known from an ofificef 



20 MOUNT WASHINGTON AND ITS CAPTURE NOV. l6 iyy6 

of Magaw's Battalion, wlio was intelligent in points of duty, and deserted 
to the enemy about a week before the assault," The same thing is inti- 
mated in one or two of the German accounts of the capture of Mount 
Washington. 

What these writers thought a possibility, is now an absolute certainty. 
The evidence too, is of the most conclusive character — -that of the traitor 
himself — in a letter of his own, over his own signature, stating the treason 
in plain, undeniable terms. 

Sixteen years after the fall of Fort Washington, in order to obtain a 
small amount due him by the British government, he wrote the following 
letter, the contents of which were to be used in obtaing payment of his 
claim from certain British officials in Canada. It is addressed to the 
Rev. Dr Peters, a clergyman of the Church of England, originally of 
Hebron, and the author of the History of Connecticut. In Dr Peters' 
possession, and that of two gentlemen of this city, father and son, the 
elder of whom married a ward of Dr Peters, who resided with him, and 
died in his house, both well-known members of the bar, this letter has 
remained until recently placed in the hands of the author of this article. 
Its authenticity is therefore beyond a cavil. 

It is given, with its errors of grammar and style, precisely as written. 
Rev. Sir : 

Permit me to Trouble you with a Short recital of my Services in America which I Presume 
may be deem'd among the most Singular of any that will go to Upper Canada. On the 2d of Nov'r 
1776 I Sacrificed all I was Worth in the World to the Service of my King & Country and joined 
the then Lord Percy, brought in with [me] the Plans of Fort Washington, by which Plans that 
Fortress was taken by his Majesty's Troops the 16 instant, Together with 2700 Prisoners and Stores 
& Ammunition to the amount of 1800 Pound. At the same time, I may with Justice affirm, from 
my Knowledge of the Works, I saved the Lives of many of His Majestys Subjects, — these Sir are 
facts well-known to every General Officer which was there — and I may with Truth Declare from 
that time I Studied the Interest of my Country and neglected my own — or in the Language of 
Cardinal Woolsey had I have Served my God as I have done my King he would not Thus have 
Forsaken me. 

The following is a Just Account due me from Government which I have never been able to 
bring forward for want of Sr. William Erskine who once when in Town assured me he'd Look into 
it but have never done it otherways I should not have been in Debt. 

This Sir though it may not be in your Power to Get me may Justify my being so much in Debt, 
& in Expectation of this Acct being Paid, together with another Dividend, from the Express words 
of the Act where it Says all under Ten Thousand pound Should be Paid without Deduction, I 
having received only ^464 which I Justified before the Commissioners : 
Due for Baw, Batt, & Forrage -------- £110. 7.0 

For Engaging Guides Getting Intelligence, &c. - - - - - - 45- 9-7 

For doing duty 39 Commissary of Prisoners at Philadelphia Paying Clerks Stationery, &c. 16.13. 8 

;^l82.I0.3 



MOUNT WASHINGTON AND ITS CAPTURE NOV. l6 1 776 2I 

The last Two Articles was Cash Paid out of my Pocket which was Promised to be Refunded 

by Sirs Wm Howe and Erskine. 

I most Humbly Beg Pardon for the Length of this Letter & Shall Conclude without makmg 
Some Masonac Remarks as at first Intended, and Remain 

Rev'd Sir with Dutiful Respect 
London ) Your most obedient and Most Hum'l Serv't. 

Jany i6th V WILLIAM DEMONT. 

1792. ) 
P.S. the Inclosed is a true account of my Debts taken from the Different Bills received. 

Such was the treason of WiUiam Demont. Originally entering Ma- 
o-aw's battalion in Philadelphia as an ensign by the appointment of the 
Pennsylvania Council of Safety, he was by the same body appointed its 
Adjutant on the 29th of February, 1776, and went with it to New York 
at the end of June in that year. This position gave him Magaw's confi- 
dence, and when, on Putnam's departure to join Washington's army, 
that officer was left in command of Mount Washington, it also gave hrni 
the fullest information of the post, and of every thing that was done or 
intended to be done in relation to it. What the two words Bazc, Batt, 
evidently abbreviations in the first line of the account mean is not known ; 
they are given as written. 

Graydon mistakes both the time of his desertion and his name. He 
left a fortnight before the capture, and not a week. He gives the name 
as ^^Dcmentr and so it also appears in the printed proceedings of 
the Pennsylvania Committee of Safety, and in the Army Returns. But, 
if this is not a printer's error, he subsequently changed the last vowel, 
for he writes it himself, unmistakably, '' Dcmontr Of his subsequent 
career little is known, except that during the British occupation of Phil- 
adelphia he acted as a Commissary of prisoners. From that time until 
he appears in London in 1792, writing the above letter, nothing has been 
learned of him, nor has it been possible as yet to trace him after that 
date. Nor yet whether he obtained his claim. Probably he could 
say : — 

" It is the curse of treachery like mine 
To be most hated where it most has serv'd." 

Sir William Howe's course shows that he acted on Demont's plans 
and information ; for, reaching Dobb's Ferry on the 6th of September 
with his army, he the next day dispatched his park of artillery to Kings- 
bridge, with a strong escort, to join von Knyphausen. And the first 
step after its arrival was to place batteries in position on the Westchester 
side of the Harlem river, to cover selected points of attack on the New 
York side. The next three days were occupied by the necessary prepa- 
rations for an assault, and in sending a brigade of Hessians to von 



22 MOUNT WASHINGTON AND ITS CAPTURE NOV. 1 6 1 776 

Knyphausen, whose own headquarters were also on the Westchester 
side of Harlem river. About the 9th or loth of November a deserter 
named Broderick came one cold rainy night over to Captain Graydon 
while he was on guard at the Point of Rocks, who told him " that we 
might expect to be attacked in six or eight days at furthest, as some time 
had been employed in transporting heavy artillery to the other side of 
the Haerlem, and as the preparations for the assault were nearly com- 
pleted." On the 1 2th Howe's whole army marched to Kingsbridge, and 
encamped the next day on the high ground on the same side of that 
river, with its right on the Bronx and its left on the Hudson. On the 
night of the 14th, undiscovered by either Magaw or Greene, thirty 
boats, chiefly from the transport fleet under Captains Wilkinson and 
Malloy, passed up the North river, and through Spuyten Duyvel to the 
Harlem river. 

Howe had determined on four separate assaults upon Mount Wash- 
ington ; the first and main one by von Knyphausen and the Hessians 
from Kingsbridge, aided by the man-of-war Pearl lying in the North 
river ; the second by boats across the Harlem river with English troops 
upon Laurel Hill ; the third by Scotch troops under Colonel Sterling, 
also by boats across the Harlem river, upon the hill inside the American 
lines of fortification near the Morris House ; and the fourth by Earl 
Percy, with English and a few German troops to march from the lines at 
McGowan's pass upon the American lines to the southward of Mount 
Washington. Batteries on the Harlem river opposite the chosen points 
of attack covered them completely.' 

Such was the British plan of attack. 

What were Greene at Fort Lee, and Magaw at Mount Washington, 
doing all this time ? And what was the action of the Commander-in- 
Chief ? 

Washington on the 5th of November replied through his Secretary, 
Harrison, to Greene's request of the 30th of October above mentioned, 
for his " mind " as to holding all Fort Washington, " that the holding or 
not holding the grounds between Kingsbridge and the lower lines de^ 
pends upon so many circumstances that it is impossible for him to deter- 
mine the point. He submits it entirely to your discretion and such 
judgment as you shall be able to form from the enemy's movements, and 
the whole complexion of things. He says, you know the original design 
was to garrison the works and preserve the lower lines as long as they 
could be kept, that the communication across the river might be open 

'Howe's first Dispatch, Nov. 30. Force 5th series, vol. iii, pp. 921, 925. 



MOUNT WASHINGTON AND ITS CAPTURE NOV. l6 1 776 ?3 

to US, and the enemy at the same time should be prevented from having 
a passage up and down the river for their ships,'" 

On the 7th Washington writes personally to Greene : " We conceive 
that Fort Washington will be an object for part of his (Howe's) force, while 
New Jersey may claim the attention of the other part. To guard against 
the evils arising from the first, I must recommend you to pay every at- 
tention in your power, and give ^very assistance you can, to the garri- 
son opposite. * * * If you have not sent my boxes, with camp 
tables, and chairs, be so good as to let them remain with you, as I do 
not know but I shall move with the troops designed for the Jerseys, per- 
suaded as I am of their having turned their views that way.'" 

Surely this was full authority to Greene to reinforce Mount Washing- 
ton if he saw fit, and as surely Washington did not expect it to be the object 
of Howe's " views." The next day (the 8th) he heard of the passage of 
three British vessels up the North river, and thereby convinced of the 
inefficiency of the obstructions therein, wrote Greene : " What valu- 
able purpose can it answer to attempt to hold a post from which the ex- 
pected benefit cannot be had ? I am, therefore, inclined to think it will 
not be prudent to hazard the men and stores at Mount Washington, but 
as you are on the spot leave it to you to give such orders as to evacu- 
ating Mount Washington as you judge best, and so far revoking the 
order given to Colonel Magaw to defend it to the last.'" 

This, though a strong opinion, still left it to Greene's judgment, and 
the latter replies on the 9th, after visiting the post the evening before : 
" Upon the whole I cannot help thinking the garrison is an advantage ; 
and I cannot conceive the garrison to be in any great danger. The men 
can be brought off at any time, but the stores may not so easily be re- 
moved, yet I think they can be got off in spite of them, if matters grow 
desperate. This post is of no consequence only in conjunction with 
Mount Washington. I was over there last evening ; the enemy seem to 
be disposing matters to besiege the place ; but Colonel Magaw thinks it 
will take them till December expires before they can carry it."^ 

Two letters passed from Greene to Washington — the one on the loth 
and the other on the nth, and the only reference to Mount Washington 
in either is the closing line of the latter, " the enemy remains quiet there 
this afternoon."^ 

'Harrison's Letter. Force 5th series, vol. iii. p. 519. 
^Force 5th series, vol. iii, p. 557. 
^Ibid. p. 602. 
''Ibid. p. 619. 
*Ibid. p. 638, 



24 MOUNT WASHINGTON AND Tl'S CAPTURE NOV. 1 6 1 776 

Washinj^ton wrote no other letter to Greene after that of the 8th. On 
the loth he left White Plains, where he had been all the time, at 1 1 A. M., 
and rode to Peekskill. The nth he spent in a reconnoissance of the 
Highlands, and on the 12th, after writing two letters,' crossed the North 
river to the ferry landing below Stoney Point on his way to the army in 
Jersey. The same day Greene wrote President Hancock ; " I expect 
General Howe will attempt to possess himself of Mount Washington, 
but ver}^ much doubt whether he will succeed in the attempt. Our 
troops are much fatigued with the amazing duty, but are generally in 
good spirits.'"^ 

As Washington crossed the Hudson he saw the three British men of 
war, which had come up on the 7th, quietly riding at anchor in the 
Tappan Sea. The obstructions and chevaux-dc-frise from which so 
much had been expected had been passed with ease. They were absolute 
failures. The British ships neither went over them nor through them, 
but around them, close in, on either the eastern or western shore, one 
of the largest vessels, which it was proposed to sink, in consequence of a 
blunder bilged and went down far from her destined position, and part 
of the chevaiix-dc-frisc found after the capture, having apparently never 
been used.^ 

On the 14th November Washington wrote a long letter .to the 
President of Congress, dated at " General Greene's Head-quarters," 
beginning, " I have the honor to inform 3'ou of my arrival here yester- 
day," in which he discussed at length various subjects of public concoi'n, 
but remarked casually on the movements of the enemy that, " it seems to 
be generall}' believed on all hands that the investing of Fort Washington 
is one object they have in view," and closed with the Avords, " I propose 
to stay in this neighborhood a few days, in which time I expect the 
designs of the enemy will become disclosed, and their incursions be 
made in this quarter, or their investiture of Fort Washington, if they are 
intended." 

This shows clearly that both Washington and Greene were in doubt 
on the 14th, the day before Mount Washington was summoned to surren- 
der, whether it was to be attacked or not. 

On the 15th, the day of the summons, Washington wrote two letters 
to the Board of War, one dated, " General Greene's Quarters," on an 

'One to General Lee, and the other — a very full one — of instructions to General Heath. 
Mount Wasliington is mentioned in neither. Ibid. 656, 657. 

-Force 5th series, vol. iii, p. 653. 

^British return of ordnance and stores taken from I2t]i of October to 2oth of November, 1776. 
Force 5th series, vol. iii, p. 1058-9. 



MOUNT WASHINGTON AND ITS CAPTURE NOV. 1 6 1 776 25 

exchange of ladies, and the other dated " Hackensaek," on an exchange 
of prisoners with the enemy, but aUudcs in neither to Mount Washing- 
ton.' 

The arrival undiscovered, of his boats after midnight of the 14th, 
completed Howe's preparations, but the next day proving unfavorable, he 
postponed the attack to the i6th. A short time after noon on the 15th, 
a mounted ofificer, with two or three companions under a white flag, 
crossed Kingsbridge, and slowly ascended the heights towards Fort 
Washington. The American commander sent down to meet him Colonel 
Swoope of Pennsylvania. The officer proved to be Lieutenant-Colonel 
Patterson, the Adjutant-General of the British Army, who bore a sum- 
mons to Colonel Magaw to surrender at discretion or suffer the conse- 
quences of a storm, which by military law is liability to be put to the 
sw^ord if taken, and he required an answer in two hours. 

Magaw at once dispatched a note with the intelligence to Greene at 
Fort Lee, saying to him at the same time, " we are determined to defend 
the post or die." He then returned to the summons this brave answer, 
addressed " To the Adjutant General of the British Army.— Sir, If I 
rightly understand the purport of your message from General Howe, 
communicated to Colonel Swoope, this post is to be immediately surren- 
dered, or the garrison put to the sword. I rather think it is a mistake 
than a settled resolution in General Howe, to act a part so unworthy of 
himself and the British Nation. But give me leave to assure his excel- 
"lency that actuated by the most glorious cause that mankind ever fought 
in, I am determined to defend this post to the very last extremity." 

Rob't Magaw, Colonel Connnanding. 

On receiving this note, Greene instantly ordered Heard's brigade 
" to hasten on," directed Magaw to defend to the last, and then in a let- 
ter dated " Fort Lee, 4 o'clock," sent enclosed Magaw's dispatch an- 
nouncing Howe's summons to Washington, who was at Hackensaek, ar- 
ranging for the reception of the American Army then crossing into New 
Jersey. Li his communication Greene said, " the contents will require 
your Excellency's attention.'" Washington immediately started for Fort 
Lee ; arrived there he found that Greene was on the New York side, and 
himself embarked to cross the river to the fort about 9 o'clock at night, 
" and [in his own words,] had partly crossed the North River, when I 
met General Putnam and General Greene, who were just returning from 

'Force 5th series, vol. iii, p. 699. 
■■'Ibid. 699, 700. 



26 MOUNT WASHINGTON AND ITS CAPTURE NOV. 1 6 1 776 

thence, and informed me that the troops were in high spirits and would 
make a good defence ; and it being late at night I returned." 

The morning of the i6th November, 1776, broke bright and fair. The 
mists in the deep valley of the Harlem had not yet risen when Lieuten- 
ant-General von Knyphausen, at the head of his Germans, marched 
from their camp on its Westchester side across Kingsbridge, and joined 
a small body of the same troops that had lain upon the island. 

He had made a special request of Sir William Howe that the main 
attack might be made by himself at the head of German regiments only, 
and it had been granted. Forming his troops, consisting of detachments 
from his own corps, von Rahl's brigade and the Waldeck regiment, 3,000 
in all, according to Graydon, into two columns, the right nearest the Hud- 
son under Colonel von Rahl, and the left under Major-General von Schmid, 
the whole commanded by himself, he pressed forward about seven o'clock 
supported by a terrific cannonade from ail the British batteries, intend- 
ed to confuse the Americans as to the real point of the main attack. But 
receiving word from Howe that all was not quite ready, he rested quietly 
till the final arrangements for the other assaults were made. The sun 
had risen well above the Westchester hills on the eastern edge of the 
valley, when a gun from the British battery farthest down the Harlem 
suddenly threw a shot into the American lines south of Fort Washing- 
ton. Then pushing forward a battery of Hessian field-guns far enough 
to engage the American batteries on the hill above what is now called 
Inwood, he put his columns in motion, each preceded by an advance guard 
of about 100 men. Von Rahl on the right, passing through the break in 
the hills forming the present entrance to Inwood, close along the Hudson 
river, pressed through the woods up the northern end of the long hill 
on which Fort Washington stood, supported by the guns of the Pearl 
frigate, which lay opposite the break, and fiercely attacked the Ameri- 
can battery and redoubt on its crest, defended by Colonel Rawling's 
regiment of Maryland riflemen, under himself and Major Otho Williams, 
and some Pennsylvania troops. The pass was steep, narrow, covered 
with woods, and well defended. The greatest gallantry was shown on 
both sides. iVgain and again the Germans attacked, and again and again 
were repelled. Fighting behind intrenchments, the Americans had the 
advantage of position ; the Germans that of numbers. Many were killed 
on both sides, but far more of the latter than the former. 

The American guns, only three in number, served rapidly and well, 
did great execution. But courage and numbers finally prevailed over 
courage and intrenchments, and the Germans, with a shout, at last car- 



MOUNT WASHINGTON AND ITS CAPTURE NOV. l6 IJ/S 2/ 

ried the crest ol the hill, and drove the Americans, whose rifles at the 
last had become almost too foul for nse, from their works. 

vin Schraid's column, with which von Knyphausen himself was 
look a more easterly route, and attacked the same position a !■ "le nea - 
the Kincsbrid-e road, but having to penetrate a triple al,at n oi felled 

rees and to go through a thick undergrowth covering the declivity, they 
were somewhat delayed; but forcing their way through, von Knyphau- 
Tennprsmi leading and helping to break down the obstructions with 
hTs own hands, the two German columns united upon the summit of 'le 

hill, and completed the discomfiture of the Americans, who retreated 

nlnmx its flat tOP tO tllC fort. . , . ^ , 

J rst as the Germans became fully engaged the English reg.nients o 
liJl in antry and guards, four in number, under Bngadiei^General 
l^faUiews, supported by the First and Second Grenadiers and the Thir- 
ty tWrdoo, under Cornwanis,in thirty boats, under cover of a tre- 
mendous fire'from the British batteries on its "^-^ ^^^^^^^^^.^XT^^ 
Harlem river to Sherman's Creek. Though met with a sharp fire, they 
" tanUy ascended the face of Laurel Hill, high wooded and precpitou 
Ihe fallen leaves, yet moist with the rain of the preceding day, rendei- 
ng he footing si 1 more difficult, and drove from the battery on its brow 
^indiTs summit the Pennsylvania troops (the last reinforcements sent 
over from Fort Lee) whoni Magaw had detailed to defend it. Though 
de ea ted and forced to retreat, they made a brave defense. Colonel 
Baxter their commander) being killed, sword in hand, at the head of his 
men About eight o'clock Earl Percy with two brigades, one English 
and the other Hessian under von Stein, began the attack upon the 
U^es to the south of Mount Washington. With this coi-ps was Su 
WiUiamHowe himself, who animated the troops by P^Tiel Lam 

nersonal bravery. The American lines were defended by Colonel Lam 
be CadwaUader at the head of his own, and Magaw's Pennsylvania 
b talons and some broken companies from Miles' and other regmr^nts 
chiefly from Pennsylvania. Driving them from a small outwoik an the 
■ first fortified line across the island, P<n-cy rested, extending his line how- 

"irsoo^aste' "bUhied this advantage orders were sent to Colonel 
, SteSvhose attack, originally intended ^.^f^^^^.^^^ 
into realitv) on the Harlem river, who with the Highlanders, sup 
ported by two battalions of the Second Brigade, instantly crossed 
fhe river in boats and landed at the foot of the hill, near the Morns 
House, inside of the American lines. Magaw, who had remained at the 



iMO 



UNT WASHINGTON AND ITS CAPTURE NOV. 1 6 1 776 



centre of the position witli a few men, in order to direct all the opera- 
tions, at once sent about a hundred men to oppose them, and Cadwall- 
ader also dispatched about one hundred and fifty for the same purpose. 
They poured a heavy fire into Sterling's boats as they reached the shore, 
killing and wounding many men, but failed to stop his landing, as 
they were only aided by a single eighteen pound gun. Leaving behind 
their Major, named Murray, a man so fat he could not keep pace with 
tliem, the Highlanders, in kilt and tartan, rushed up the ascent with 
such speed and dash that they actually made prisoners of about a hun- 
dred and seventy of the Americans. Hearing his calls, some of his 
men then went back and helped their stout Major to the top of the hill. 

When Stirling's fire was heard, Percy again quickly advanced, 
and Cadwallader, after a short and brisk contest at the second line, find- 
ing himself in danger of being cut off by the Highlanders, retreated 
to the Fort, into which the flying Americans had crowded in disor- 
der as they were driven from their respective lines of defence. 

Knyphausen's columns having neared the fort first, and taken a 
commanding position within a hundred yards of its west side, he sent a 
second summons to surrender, which was received by Cadwallader and 
referred to Magaw. 

The fort itself does not seem to have fired at all. It was in fact so 
crowded by the fugitive Americans that they would have been slaught- 
ered in masses had it been defended and stormed. When they first be- 
gan to crowd in Magaw endeavored to animate them, urging them again 
to man the lines, but in vain. They could not again be rallied. 

When Washington from Fort Lee saw the success of the German at- 
tack, he sent Captain Gooch over the river with a note to Colonel Magaw 
to try and hold out till night, when he would endeavor to relieve him 
and bring off the garrison. Gooch rowed across, delivered the note, 
and returned in safety with the answer. But his mission was too late. 
Magaw had proceeded so far in his negotiations for a surrender that he 
could not withdraw. After much parley, he signed articles of capitu- 
lation with General von Knyphausen and Colonel Patterson, the British 
Adjutant General, by which safety of persons and baggage was guar- 
anteed, and the fort then surrendered to the British, who subsequently, 
in honor of the gallantry of the Germans and their commander, changed 
its name to Fort Knyphausen. 

Demont's treason had done its work, and the flag of England again 
waved over the entire island of New York. Twenty-eight hundred and 
eighteen prisoners, including oihccrs, forty-three guns, aud a large ([uan. 



MOUNT WASHINGTON AND ITS CAPTURE NOV. l6 1 776 29 

tity of military stores, includins: " 200 iron fraise of four hundred 
weight each, supposed to be intended to stop the navigation of Hud- 
son's River," fell into the hands of the victors, besides 2,800 muskets, 
400,000 cartridges, 15 barrels of powder, and several thousand shot 
and shell. The loss of the Americans was four officers killed and three 
wounded, and fifty privates killed and ninety wounded, a total of one hun- 
dred and forty-seven. The British loss was seventy-eight killed and three 
hundred and eighty wounded, a total of four hundred and fifty-eight; 
of which that of the Hessians alone was fifty-eight killed and two hundred 
and seventy-two ' wounded, including officers, being in all three hun- 
dred and thirty. The British forces engaged were, according to Gray- 
don, three thousand under von Knyphausen, eight hundred under Stn-- 
ling, and sixteen hundred under Percy. Mathews' numbers he does not 
give, but as there were seven regiments, of only about five hundred 
effective men each, they may be set down as thirty-five hundred, 
making a total force of eighty-nine hundred. Sir William Howe's 
dispatch gives merely the names of the regiments engaged, not 
their numbers. 

In the defense of Mount Washington Magaw seems to have disposed 
of his men to the best advantage, considering its great extent and his 
numbers, especially as he had to make his full dispositions after the Brit- 
ish plan had developed itself ; and he did his duty faithfully. 

Washington's private judgment was opposed to holding the post 
after the retreat from New York, but he was governed by the wishes 
of Congress and the decisions of his Council of War. When the British 
ships last passed up the river in spite of the obstructions, he strongly 
advised, and also authorized. General Greene and Magaw to abandon 
the post, /;/// du/ not command it to be done. He was present, too, at 
Greene's quarters at Fort Lee and at Hackensack from the 13th, when he 
found his advice had not been followed, to the i6th, and during this 
time could easily have ordered the post abandoned and the garrison 
withdrawn, if he had seen fit. On the other hand. General Greene was 
for holding the fortress throughout from the very first. After the last 
passage of the frigates he was left to use his own discretion whether to 
abandon it or not by the Commander-in-Chief, and he exercised that 
discretion by holding it, as he had a perfect right to do. Neither Gen- 
eral should be censured at the expense of the other-each did what he 
thought was for the best under the circumstances, and neither dreamt 

' Force iii, 925, British returns of ordnance and stores taken. Ibid., 105S, Howe's dispatch. 



30 MOUNT WASHINGTON AND ITS CAPTURE NOV. l6 1776 

that he had treason to contend against. The loss of Fort Washington 
was due to the first traitor of the American Army, WiUiam Demont. 

There were instances on both sides in this action of humor and gaity, 
as well as of intrepidity and valor, in the midst of danger. One instance 
of the latter must be mentioned, which has rarely been equalled or sur- 
passed. In one of the Pennsylvania regiments was a soldier named Corbin, 
who was accompanied by his wife. His post was at one of the guns in 
the battery on the hill attacked by the Hessians, where the battle raged 
hardest, hottest, and longest ; for it was between two and three hours be- 
fore the Germans succeeded in carrying that position. In the midst of 
the fight Corbin, struck by a ball, fell dead at his wife's feet as she was 
aiding him in his duties. Instantly, without a word, she stepped into 
his place and worked the gun with redoubled skill and vigor, fighting 
bravely till she sank to the earth, pierced by three grapeshot in the 
shoulder. Though terribly wounded, she. finally recovered, but was dis- 
abled for life. A soldier's half-pay and the value of a soldier's suit of 
clothes, annually voted her by the Continental Congress while John Jay 
presided, was all the reward that the first woman who fought for 
American liberty ever received for such heroic love, courage, and 
suffering. 

Thirty-two years afterward Spain's glowing, dark-eyed daughter, 
erect in the deadly breach, fiercely defending her native city against 
the French invader, and hurling vengeance on the slayers of her lover 
dead at her feet, burst upon the world never to be forgotten. The deed 
of Augustina of Aragon, the Maid of Zaragoza, was not nobler, truer, 
braver than that of Margaret Corbin of Pennsylvania. Byron's im- 
mortal lines are as true of the one as of the other : 

" Her lover sinks, — she sheds no ill timed tear, 
Her chief is slain, — she fills his fatal post; 
The foe retires,— she heads the sallying host: 
Who can appease, like her, a lover's ghost? 

E. F. DeLANCEY. 



Note. — This account is an extended statement of one of Mr. E. F. DeLancey's editorial 
notes in the first volume of the History of New York during the American Revolution, written at 
its close by the Hon. Thomas Jones, of Queens county. Long Island (giving a Loyalist account of 
the war), now in press, and soon to be issued by the New York Historical Society. 



XKl^" YORK ISLAND 

From Morris House loM'. (rOAN-tins Pass , 

Kedtictiono/'Sdiit/iicriiMii/jBnam Mi'/^Zd'. 




aaa Barrac/csiuiiil>vth£ 
im/Ticans and iumed 
fti tjit ri ^rett 



Li&.c'rsta^a/!i>di 7 "Ju?? (? vr 



APPENDIX 



31 



COLONEL MAGAW S 
ORDERLY BOOK AT MOUNT WASH- 
INGTON. 

The following is a copy of all the 
entries in the Orderly Book of Colonel 
Magaw, taken from the original by the 
kind permission of its present owner, the 
Rev. Dr. Joseph A. Murray, of Carlisle, 
Pennsylvania. It begins October 31st, 
1776, but unfortunately stops November 
loth, 1776, six days before the surrender. 
The order of Nov. ist, increasing the 
picket guards very strongly for the 2d, 
may have been the proximate cause of 
Demont's departure. He probably did 
not want to run the risk of the increased 
numbers of pickets, and therefore went 
over to the enemy before they were act- 
ually placed on guard. E. F. de L. 

"Harlem Heights, October 25th. 
Parole Danvers. Co. Sign Newberry. 

Saturday, October 26th. 
Parole Lexington. Co. Sign Concord. 

Sunday, October 27 th. 
Parole Roxbury. Co. Sign Cambridge. 

Monday, October 28th. 
Parole Litchfield. Co. Sign Norwich. 

Tuesday, October 29th. 
Parole Berks. Co. Sign Reading. 

Wednesday, October 30th. 
Parole Lancaster. Co. Sign York. 

Thursday, October 31st. 
Parole Cumberland. Co. Sign Carlisle. 

Friday, November ist. 
Parole Pittsburgh. Co. Sign Bedford. 

Coll. Magaw's Orders. 
Ninety men for Picquet towards New 
York tomorrow, to be stationed as fol- 



lows — North River, i Sub. and 20; Hol- 
loway, I Sergt. and 10; Point of Rocks, 
I Sub. and 20 ; Works near Harlaem 
River, i Sub. and 20; One Capt. at the 
Point of Rocks or North River; i Sub. 
and 20 on the East River between Head 
quarters and Fort Washington. Weekly 
returns to be given in before 12 o'clock 
at Noon, of the strength of the several 
Regiments and Detachments of our 
Troops now on this Island, that duty may 
be proportioned. 

Capt. Longs Company to join Coll. 
Rawlings Battn.; in the mean time Capt. 
Moulton, of the Artillery, will appoint 
one of his Officers to act as Fort Major 
who will prevent all doubtfull or suspect- 
ed persons entering the Fort, and observe 
such Orders As may be given by the 
Commanding Officer or Capt. Moulton. 

Saturday, November 2d. 
Parole Amboy. Co. Sign Woodbridge. 

Sunday, November 3d. 
Parole Morris. Co. Sign Potter. 

Monday, November 4th. 
Parole Sabrook. Co. Sign Enfield. 

No cattle or hogs to be suffered in the 
Fort. No passes or passages to be made 
on any pretence whatsoever through the 
Abbatis, Lieut. Coll. Wypert is to be at 
liberty to have any Tents or obstructions 
removed which may be in his way in 
strengthening the works; all Officers to 
give him assistance for that purpose. 
The Officers of the several Guards to 
recommend the greatest allertness to their 
Centinels at this time and place, the most 
dangerous, important, and honourable. 
Post that, perhaps, Americans were ever 
l^laced in. The Liberty of this great and 
free Continent may in great measure de- 



32 



APPENDIX 



pend on our vigilance and bravery. Mr. 
John Morgan is to act as Brigade Major, 
all passes signed by him to be considered 
as good. 

The Adjutants orSergt. Majors of the 
several battalions to attend at Headquar- 
ters at 3 o'clock every day for orders, 
which will be delivered by Mr. Morgan, 
he will also deliver them the Parole and 
Counter Sign in the Evening. Each Bat- 
talion and Detachment to make out exact 
returns of their strength on this Island, 
both fit for duty and sick, as orders are 
received to transmit the returns to the 
Commander in Chief, and the Congress, 
these returns to be made by 12 o'clock 
tomorrow. 

Tuesday, November 5 th. 
Parole Bristol. Co. Sign Frankfort, 
Notwithstanding the frequent general 
orders against fireing guns about the Camp 
and wanton waste of Amunition, This 
destructive practice still prevails. Officers 
are to be very vigilant and detect and 
confine offenders, and also to examine 
the Cartouch Boxes at least twice a week, 
and charge the men 6d pr Cartridge for 
such as cant be accounted for. 

Wednesday, November 6th. 
Parole Dover. Co. Sign Darby. 
The Officers of the Guards on the 
lines are to be very punctual in giveing 
strict orders to the Centinels to permit 
no person who is not in this service to 
come within the lines, but such as come 
to continue, as they will not on any pre- 
tence whatever be permitted to return, 
likewise no person to pass from here be- 
yond the lines, as they will not on any 
account be suffered to return. 

The Adjutants and Sergt. Majors of 
the several battalions and detachments 
are to be carefull that all their officers 
have the Reading the above orders. 



Thursday, November ytli. 
Parole Washington. Co. Sign Lee. 
Friday, November 8th. 
Parole Magaw. Co. Sign Greene. 

Saturday, November 9th. 
Parole Cadwallader. Co. Sign Beatty. 

Sunday, November loth. 
Parole Brunswick. Co. Sign Burling- 
ton." 

Colonel Robert Magaw was the 
eldest son of William Magaw a Scotch- 
Irish lawyer who came, prior to 1752, 
from Strabane, in the north of Ireland, 
to Maryland, and thence to Carlisle, in 
Pennsylvania. He was born in Ireland, 
was a lawyer, married while a prisoner 
Marritie Van Brunt of Flatbush, and 
died 6th January, 1790, at Carlisle, 
leaving a son and daughter. His regi- 
ment, 5th Pennsylvania, numbered 25 
officers and 312 men when surrendered. 
— Ms. Magaiv papers. Letter of Dr. 
Murray. 

DoDON Henry, Baron von Knyp- 
hausen, Lieutenant-General, born in Al- 
sace, in 1730, son of Baron von Knyp- 
hausen a Colonel under Marlborough, 
and was a descendant of the great 
Holland General of Gustavus Adolphus, 
whose name he bore. Tall, spare in per- 
son, very German in appearance, he was, 
though a strict officer, popular with both 
officers and men. He died in Berlin, 
in 1794, a full General in the Prussian 
service. — Watson s Philadelphia Bio- 
graphic Universelle. 

Parade of the Prisoners. — " The 
prisoners taken at Mt. Washington were 
all paraded near the Jews' Burying 
Ground (now Chatham Square). They 
were said to be 2,500; no insults were 
offered to them when paraded, nor any 
public huzzaing or rejoicing as was usual 
on similar and less occasions." — Ms. 
letter of yohn McKesson to Geo. Clinton. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



011 800 186 2 



